State Highlights: Calif. Bill To Expand Parental Leave Law Stalls In Committee; Medicare Analysis Points To Chicago As Hot Spot For Home Health Fraud

KQED: Effort To Expand Parental Leave Law Stalls In Assembly Committee
A bill that would have expanded California’s parental leave law stalled in an Assembly committee Wednesday, and politics may have played a role in its demise. SB1166, from Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), would have required employers with 10 or more employees to allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to bond with a new child. Currently, the law is limited to employers with 50 or more employees. The measure was a priority of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. (Orr, 6/22)

Chicago Tribune: Chicago A Hot Spot For Home Health Fraud
The metropolitan area is one of 27 geographic "hot spots" identified by an analysis of Medicare claims data by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. The examination found dozens of home health agencies and physicians in the Chicago area whose recent Medicare claims have characteristics similar to those observed in cases of fraud. (Sachdev, 6/22)

The Baltimore Sun: Two Telehealth Projects Gain Funding Under Pilot To Show The Technology's Value
Two private medical practices with offices around Maryland will receive grants from the Maryland Health Care Commission totaling more than $115,000 to demonstrate the value of telehealth technology. (Cohn, 6/22)

Health News Florida: PriceCheck: It Pays To Shop Around For MRIs In Florida
When it comes to health care in Florida, it pays to shop around. The cost of a common MRI can vary by thousands of dollars depending on where you go to get it. (Ochoa, 6/22)

Health News Florida: Florida Health Department Reports Measles In Miami
The Florida Department of Health reports a child in Miami-Dade County has come down with a case of measles. (Mack, 6/22)

The Houston Chronicle: Veterans: Report Validates Wait-Time Allegations At Houston VA
After moving to Houston two years ago, Bora Chang finally started receiving overdue medical treatment for injuries incurred during a decade of military service and a rocket attack in Iraq. ... But then, earlier this year, schedulers at the VA Medical Center in Houston began canceling her physical therapy appointments, often haphazardly and without warning, she said. Chang's complaint echoes that of other local veterans, who have previously raised concerns about the problems obtaining timely appointments at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center or its outlying clinics. ... They - and local veterans' advocates - say their concerns were vindicated by a report from the VA's Office of Inspector General released this week that found local VA officials were manipulating scheduling in a way that obscured the long wait times for appointments. (Barned-Smith and Ketterer, 6/22)

The Des Moines Register: Ex-Planned Parenthood Manager's Lawsuit Moves Ahead
A former Iowa Planned Parenthood manager who has become a prominent abortion opponent can push ahead with a fraud lawsuit against her old employer, a federal judge ruled this week. (Leys, 6/22)

Savannah Morning News: Effingham Hospital CEO Norma Jean Morgan To Collect $725,000 Severance
The severance agreement for Effingham County Health System CEO Norma Jean Morgan calls for her to continue receiving her salary and health benefits for 28 months after her May 25 retirement, with the salary totaling $725,000. The four-page severance agreement, obtained under Georgia’s Open Records Act, calls for Morgan to receive health benefits during the 28 months at the same cost she was paying as an employee. ...The agreement calls for both parties to refrain from making disparaging or defamatory comments about each other. (Rigsby, 6/22)

California Healthline: Saving Lives And Saving Money
As health care costs continue to rise, attention has turned to a tiny number of expensive patients like Meade, called super-utilizers. A program that started in Orange County has taken a different approach to treating Meade and other high-cost patients: Over the past two years, it has tracked them, healed them and saved a ton of money along the way. Meade received more than a million dollars worth of care in each of the two years before he entered the program, according to Paul Leon, CEO of the Illumination Foundation, a homeless health services group based in Irvine. Leon’s foundation runs the program, known as Chronic Care Plus, which has stabilized Meade and found him housing. (Gorn, 6/23)

The Washington Post: D.C. Revises Lead Contamination Rules After Libraries Tested Above U.S. Guidelines
On the same day the D.C. Public Library announced it found excessive lead contamination in four libraries, city officials said they will lower the maximum acceptable level of lead in public drinking water, making the District’s standards far stricter than those required by the Environmental Protection Agency. Six water fountains and one sink in the city’s public libraries were found to exceed the EPA’s maximum lead contamination level of 15 parts per billion, library officials announced Tuesday. (Schmelzer, 6/22)

North Carolina Health News: Study: North Carolina Minors Have Easy Online Access To E-Cigs
...Though today’s youth smoke far fewer cigarettes than their counterparts did 20 years ago, an emerging market for electronic cigarettes is providing a new outlet for nicotine use among young people. Despite a state law prohibiting the sale of these products to people younger than 18, a study by UNC-Chapel Hill researchers found that North Carolina minors can easily obtain electronic cigarettes over the internet. (Allf, 6/22)

California Healthline: As Marijuana Legalization Initiative Heads For California Ballot, Health Groups Weigh In
With an initiative to legalize marijuana in California likely heading to the November ballot, medical providers, health care experts and industry groups are sharply divided over the controversial measure. It is already legal in California to use cannabis with a doctor’s prescription. The Adult Use of Marijuana Act would allow adults 21 years and older to possess up to one ounce of it and grow up to six plants for non-medical use. The initiative also would impose a 15 percent tax on recreational marijuana sales. (Ibarra, 6/23)

Kaiser Health News: In Alameda County, A Big Data Effort To Prevent Frequent ER Visits
Almost every day, a patient comes into Dr. Arthur Sorrell’s San Francisco emergency room still wearing a wristband from another hospital nearby. “There are folks who have a life of going from emergency department to emergency department, and that’s how their day is spent,” said Sorrell, an emergency physician and administrator at Sutter Health. "It’s sad and tragic, but that’s what happens.” The wristband is at least a hint. Without it, emergency room staff often have no idea they are sharing patients with other hospitals just a mile away. So they treat those patients completely independently, often repeating tests unnecessarily, assigning them multiple case managers when only one is needed and offering contradictory advice. (Gold, 6/22)